Kermit

Sometimes in rescue, a special dog or cat comes along that captures your heart more than any other. In my case, in the past two years I've been rescuing, there have been three dogs that I have fallen desperately in love with.

The first one is Murphy, a shy, scared black fuzzy dog that was terrified of everything. I brought him home as a foster dog and started working with him to help him become braver.  He got over some of his fears, and quickly found a wonderful home with a family that continued to help him become a normal, happy dog. I am very fortunate that the family who adopted him has stayed in touch and his new mom has become a friend of mine.  They still allow me to visit with Murphy at times and I love seeing how happy he is now in his new home. 

The second dog is Noelle, an outgoing, fearless white deaf dog that was not afraid of anything. She scared away all potential adopters while stealing my heart, and nine months after I brought her home to foster, we ended up adopting her ourselves. She's still not an easy dog, but I love her more than ever. 

And the third dog is Kermit, a three year old Black Lab/Akita mix. Just like Murphy and Noelle, Kermit comes with issues. He has a neurological disorder that causes him to have poor balance. It means he has trouble going up and down staircases, and he occasionally falls down when walking or running. Because of his issues, and the fact that he is a very large black dog (which are always harder to adopt out), Kermit has been living at a shelter for almost three years now - pretty much his entire life!  He was found as an eight week old puppy, wandering down a country highway.  If you ever wonder how come so many puppies end up found in the country on a desolate highway, read this.  Kermit was taken in by a rescue group and volunteers worked hard to help him.  But because of his physical limitations, he was overlooked for adoption week after week.

I met Kermit two years ago when I started volunteering at the rescue shelter where he lived.  I fell in love with him right away.  I tried everything to help him get adopted - we made adoption posters and volunteers put them up all over the area.  I helped transport him to adoption events on weekends to be seen by the public.  One time I took him home for a week to see how he did in a house, and it made me fall even more in love with him. But we have stairs in our house, and you have to go down the staircase to get to the fenced in yard, so it wasn't a good long-term situation for him. So I took him back to the shelter and kept hoping for him to find his permanent home. That was over a year ago, and Kermit is still waiting.

Although I don't volunteer with Kermit's rescue group anymore, they graciously agreed to let me foster Kermit again.  The stairs at my house are still an issue, but I have a temporary solution for that.  By taking him home as a foster dog, I will be able take him to adoption events every weekend, and hopefully someone will see him there and want to adopt him soon.  I just want him to have his own home with his own family, and live happily ever after.  Because after waiting so long, Kermit really deserves that.